Hi there! My name is Yoojin. Jung Yoojin. My close friends call me Jin. Not that I hate it but I mean Yoojin is a pretty decent name right? Why do they have to be so lazy to call me Jin? I call them by their full name so how hard is it to add a ‘Yoo’ inside? Isn’t hard right? Anyways, enough about that crap, let’s talk more about me. In my family, I’m the only child. My parents are both middle-income workers and we live in a pretty average house in Seoul.

Speaking of average, I have been an average girl all my life. I think my middle name could be average at this rate. Jung ‘average’ Yoojin. Sounds good aye? So yeah, I’m average looking, with average brains and average skills of basically everything. No just kidding, I at everything. I can’t seem to find anything that I’m really talented at and that because people always say there will be one thing you’re really talented at. For me? So far nothing. But it’s alright, I have a passion for art, despite my average artistic skills.

So here’s the thing about me, I have a few best friends and two of them I’ve known since we were kids. I’ll introduce them in a little bit so pay attention. As I grew older, my circle of friends did increase and by the time I got to high school, I never know I would have this bunch of amazing friends by my side. But that’s a story to tell later on. So onto introducing my two best buds from when we were little kids!

First up, my longest and oldest friend, Lee Howon. He’s a brat basically. A rich brat, all right. Even till this day, he insists that he isn’t but in all seriousness, he may be a brat sometimes but he is hella rich, so he’s still a rich brat. The son of the richest and largest profit making company in Korea right now. With properties all over the world, in places that I don’t even know how to pronounce, Korea’s richest tycoon’s son, Lee Howon. Yep, you heard that right; this rich is my best bud number one.

He has a noona, who is five years older than him and so much more mature than he will ever be. You may be wondering, how did I even get to be friends with one of the richest guys in Korea? Well, he’s the one who started befriending me and I couldn’t really reject a friendship could I?

It all started when we were five years old. My parents were usually busy so I would go to the playground to play with other children around the neighbourhood. My parents were okay with that because other caretakers were there too and well, as long as there’s adult supervision, they’re fine with that. So, we were playing one day and suddenly this scrawny little boy came over to join us in a game of tag.

Neither of us had really seen him before but we played with him nevertheless. “My name is Howon, Lee Howon. Can I be your friend?” That scrawny little boy extended his hand out to me. I stared at it for a while before it hit me that he wanted to be friends. I don’t know why out of all the other kids in the playground, he picked me to be his friend. Maybe because the other kids had parents and caretakers to take care for them but I was alone at the playground. He was alone too.

Without any fear or whatsoever, I extended mine and shook hands with him. “I’m Jung Yoojin!” And that was the start of our wonderful friendship.

We played at the playground almost every day and I found out that we were the same age too. I think we hit off pretty well and we had spent so much so much time together since then. Which was why I even invited him home and my parents were totally fine and welcoming. Together, we played lots of things at my house if we weren’t at the playground. Since I am a girl, I had even made him play Barbie with me and surprisingly, he wasn’t against it because he had a noona.

At the age of five, I never really knew his family background because he never mentioned them and I never bothered to ask. Why do five year olds need to care anyway? It was only that particular day that I found out.

We were at a nearby mart eating ice cream and talking about the latest cartoon show that we watched at my house when we suddenly saw a well-dressed man in a suit running in the neighbourhood. He wasn’t anywhere near us but having hawk-like eyes, Howon spotted him from a distance and started panicking.

“Yoojin, run!” He grabbed my free hand and made a dash for it, leaving me confused and upset because I was in the middle of enjoying my really nice dessert.

“Howon! Why are we running away?” I asked, obviously not knowing the situation. He ignored me as we continued running. Suddenly, he pulled me into a corner down the alley and put a hand on my mouth, preventing me from making any noise. I was shocked, being a five year old and all, I was wondering why the hell are we running away and was he kidnapping me? Crazy thoughts were running through my head but in my defense, I was a naïve five year old then. I deserve to have crazy thoughts. Howon then peeked out from the corner and hurriedly hid back again, panting. So it was obvious by then that we were hiding. But from who? I had no idea.

Just then, the man ran past us looking around but since we were small, we managed to hide from him behind the huge rubbish bin. “Young master! Young master Howon! Where are you! Your mother is looking for you! Let’s stop this hide and seek and head back shall we?” The man shouted as he ran across the alley. Upon hearing Howon’s name, I was about to question him once again but he managed to shush me with his hand over my mouth.  

After what seemed like eternity of hiding behind a smelly bin, the surrounding was quiet and we finally came out of hiding. “Who was that looking for you?” I immediately asked, not being able to hide my curiosity any longer.

Howon then stared at me for at least five seconds; I think he was contemplating if he should even tell me at all. “My butler.” He replied. Short and sweet. It was like he didn’t want me to question him again but silly young me didn’t get the hint and so I began bombarding him with tons of questions until he finally told me everything. That he was the son of the wealthiest man in Korea.

I didn’t think of it as much then because I was still a kid but thinking back, wow how can I be so stupid to think nothing of him? I guess that’s kids for you. Young, naïve, innocent and of course, not judgmental.

He told me that he hated staying at home and learning from whatever tutors his parents hired for him so he ran out. And then he found the playground. Ever since then, he would always climb over his house gates and run away before the butlers could catch him.

I then found out that his house was actually pretty near mine. Except that his wasn’t really much of a house, it was a huge mansion. I swear I saw it as a kid and I still feel intimidated by the looks of it. It was beyond gigantic. Located in a secluded place but still pretty near my place, hence he was able to find his way over to my neighbourhood.

“Don’t tell anyone okay? I don’t want them to look at me any differently.”

“Why would they?” I asked, because I definitely didn’t.

I promised him that I wouldn’t let any of the other kids know about his background and even till this day, I am still keeping that promise. Kinda proud of myself on that one.

Onto best bud number two. He is also one really amazing guy that I couldn’t live without. Yes, my best bud number two is also a guy. I think I really hit off pretty well with guys but anyways, I’ve known him since I was six. Just a year after I met Howon and we became best friends, I met my next best friend, Nam Woohyun.

How I actually met Woohyun was pretty normal. My mom and his mom somehow because best of friends and his mom would come over regularly to chat with my mom, bringing him along. When I was six, my mom had actually stopped working and started taking care of me full time. Woohyun’s mom too, was a housewife and hence the both of them got to know each other and became good friends. Every time Mrs Nam came over, she would never fail to bring Woohyun along. Besides, the Nam family only live a few houses down the road. Pretty close I would say.

At first I didn’t really interact much with him until my mom would scold me for only playing with Howon. “Yoojin-ah, play with Woohyun too!” She would nag at me. Therefore, Howon and I decided to reach out to Woohyun and the three of us became best friends. Just like that. We would always play together since Woohyun and Howon came over every other day. Slowly, we even brought Woohyun to the playground that we frequent and the three of us became inseparable.

One thing I love about Woohyun is that he is a very kindhearted guy since young. But also because of that, the older kids in the playground would always bully him and Howon and I had to help him before he starts crying. I guess the older kids found him easy to bully but they obviously didn’t know Woohyun had a badass Howon behind his back protecting him.

Also, Woohyun was very sweet to me when we were young. Despite all the etiquette lessons Howon attended, I guess he never really did learn anything because Howon would always be bullying me and Woohyun would come to my rescue. “My mommy said boys don’t bully girls.” He used to say. Howon would just laugh it off and start picking another fight with me. Yes, since young, we had fought a lot.

However, I guess some of that changed because Woohyun have been hanging out too much with Howon. He started joining Howon in bullying me but at the end of the day, he still treated me better than Howon. Nevertheless, the two are my best friends and I wouldn’t know what I would do without either of them.

The three of us started elementary school together and was even allocated the same class. Talk about coincidence right. That just made our friendship stronger as we hung out more often. In fact, I was surprised that Howon didn’t get sent to the same private school as his noona but every time I asked him why not, he would just shrug, he himself not knowing why. Thinking about it, it was probably because his family wanted him to live a low-key life. They never showed any photos of him in the media and the nation only know that the Lee Company has a son and a daughter. They just didn’t know who. Except that they knew his sister, just not him. Nobody would have guessed that Howon is actually the son of Korea’s number one tycoon. Nobody.

Basically, during my entire elementary school education, I couldn’t really remember being friends with anybody else. Maybe I did have other friends but I stuck to the two boys more often than not, so I guess the early years of my life only had them in it. Which is relatively true because thinking back, I really don’t remember hanging out with anyone else except for those two.

I spent all my free time with them, be it during school or after school. There was just no separation of the three of us. You could say we were the three musketeers of that time. Okay, I’m being too dramatic but it was true that if you saw one of us, you’ll see the other two. We never went anywhere without each other.

And that, was just the beginning. 

First chappie up! So happy for the start of this fic becuase I had this whole plot in my head for a really long time, even before my frst fic I think. Not to mention, this fic is so dear to me because it was inspired by some real life events that happened to me. :") Anyways, the first chapter is up and do let me know what you guys think of it! I appreciate every single reader and comment and suscriber and what not so don't be shy to let me know what you think! 

Edit: found some typos that I just had to get rid off ugh I really need to proof read my chapters more carefully but sometimes the typos just slip out of your vision don't they?